|
|
.JPG)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I had the opportunity to work in a group of 14 – 22 artists for nine days. We had 4 empty class rooms to share and we all worked individually on our art.
It took me at least two days to adapt to the ‘busy’ environment and it was very difficult at first not to get distracted all the time. Once I was able to focus on my work, despite the people around me, I started to realize how high the creative energy level actually was and how much I gained from it. The creativity and input of the group took me (maybe all of us) to a whole different state and it was wonderful to see how everybody shared the knowledge and experience of making art.
I was capable of much more than I would have been by myself, and at the same time, I had to be very careful to not ‘overload’ myself with impressions, statements, ideas and critiques of others. The challenge really was to keep being myself in a very unfamiliar environment and to try to be inspired without being distracted at the same time.
During the day, group members would walk around and visit each other in the different rooms. By doing that, one would not only see all the diverse work which ranged from print making to spray painting, one would also notice the enormously different atmosphere within the rooms themselves. Our room was known as ‘the quiet room’. We all worked very focused and quietly. Other rooms were enormously energetic and vocal. It was so interesting to see how everybody somehow ended up being in the room where they belonged.
Looking at all the work that had been done after that time and the progress everybody had made was just incredible.
This proves that I have to get out of the solitude of my studio once in a while!
July 2011